Prosecutor Drops Some Charges in Clyburn Retrial

Former United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776 Federal Credit Union CEO Anne Clyburn will face just 12 charges on Thursday when she appears before a Montgomery County, Pa., judge in her retrial.

Clyburn had been convicted in 2010 for stealing $32,469 from the Plymouth Meeting, Pa., credit union, but that decision was overturned last year on a technicality.

Montgomery County Deputy District Attorney Steven Latzer told Credit Union Times on Wednesday that he has withdrawn counts that relate to Clyburn’s allegedly giving herself unauthorized raises and using a corporate credit card to pay hotel charges that had not been approved by the $6.5 million credit union’s board.

Latzer said he will only proceed with charges that Clyburn used credit union checks to pay dental bills for herself and her husband. Not only do those charges include theft, he said, but also charges that she unlawfully accessed credit union computers to write the allegedly fraudulent checks.

Clyburn’s husband, Stephan Clyburn, said when the prosecution dropped the charges, which Clyburn had been convicted of in 2010, it made “a tacit admission Anne was wrongfully convicted.’

The prosecutor said he plans to proceed with a bench trial, rather than a jury trial. Latzer said he’s comfortable the judge can “easily sift through the various issues involved and get to the heart of the case.”

The reduced charges involve significantly less money than the original conviction – approximately $1,300, according to Stephan Clyburn. Anne Clyburn served nine months in jail following the 2010 conviction but was freed following her successful appeal.